From Cap'n Barb:

Sunday we (Barb, Richard and Paul) did the Giant's Rib Raid in the Albion Hills/Palgrave area. It was 26 km of navigating and running, with most of central Canada's best adventure running teams in attendance. We had originally set a goal of top ten for this race because of our local knowledge, but I'd secretly downgraded my goal to top fifteen based on the depth of the field.

There was frost on the ground in the morning, but it quickly turned into a beautiful sunny day. What a great day to be out in the forest! We started out with each of us doing a 500 meter loop up and down the steep hill in front of the Albion Hills Chalet, relay-style. It still had ice on it! I did the first loop, then Richard did the second loop and picked up grid coordinates for the first three CPs. While I plotted the CPs on Map #1, Paul did the third loop and picked up Map #2 for the day. When Paul returned, we took off down the trail and ducked into the woods. For the first few CPs, the teams' routes were crossing each other, so we got to see Bob Miller, Lawrence Foster, Hans Fransson, Bill Trayling, John Yip, the Simon River Sports guys, etc. as they were jockeying for position at the front. Very cool!

Starting at CP5, it was the Matrix section where we divided up four checkpoints amongst the three of us. This time I took two CPs, expecting to take a bit longer than the boys, which is how it turned out. Looking at Richard's heart rate monitor, he was waiting for about 8 minutes - I think Paul got there about 4 minutes after him, then I arrived 4 minutes after that. Although our time in the Matrix was pretty good compared to other teams, it wasn't the best way to divide up the CPs because it left me no time to look at Map #2, which would have been helpful. When we joined up again, we left the CP immediately and started running up the rail trail, then took Duffy's Lane up to Palgrave Conservation Area. There were a few CPs in there before an aid station, then there was an advanced section with six CPs, one of which needed to be plotted on the map. Three of the CPs were in an area with only contour lines and water features - no vegetation or trails. That was really difficult, even though we know Palgrave CA well. Two of the CPs were in the block of land behind our place, so it wasn't hard to find them.

Then it was another road run back to Albion Hills and into a different area of the park. We had been pushing harder than usual and by this time, I was feeling pretty bagged - walking at least as much as I was running. The interesting thing is that we had good rankings for the last two controls and the finish control, so I guess that everyone else was slowing down as well. We ran up to the finish line at the Chalet. Simon River Sports gave us high fives as we ran the last 30 meters. Woo hoo!

Unbelievably, we broke 4 hours for a 26 km adventure run. Our time was 3:59:15. The winning time was 2hrs 56 min. The winning time is always about the same in these runs. Our previous best time was probably half an hour slower, so we were really pushing. Even more unbelievably, the all-male Children's Wish Foundation team crossed the finish line six minutes after us (Lawrence Foster, Scott Ford, Glenn Edwards). We were 9th overall and 4th Coed, right behind Simon River Sports. Ahead of them were two strong coed orienteering teams. Wow, that is so exciting! Granted we had home ice advantage, but I learned that it is a very different thing to know where a place is and to know the fastest way to get to that place. I can see that not all of our routes were perfect, now that I have time to review the map better. However, most of the routes were very good and I don't think we had any errors longer than a minute. Maybe not even that long. In most cases, the CP was exactly where we expected it to be, and there were only a couple of places where we scratched our heads over which trail was correct or which part of the hill the CP might be on. My 3-day orienteering meet last weekend was a big help. Also, I think our teamwork was very good. Richard worked hard on the towing and Paul stepped in where needed - leading us on a bearing as we bushwhacked, helping to pull on the tow rope, assisting with the nav, etc.

The post-race festivities were fun - pizza and cold drinks out on the sunny deck as we watched teams arrive at the finish line. A lot of our AR friends and acquaintances were there. Bill Trayling offered Richard a cold beer from his secret stash. Richard handed it to me and said (in front of Bill), "Here Barb, you're going to need a drink after seeing Bill here without his shirt on." Overall, the Giant's Rib Raid was a huge success and everyone had a great time. It's a relief to me to have it over, as I was involved in all the paperwork of renting the Chalet, getting insurance and an emergency services plan for the Conservation Authority, buying drinks and cookies, and organizing Caruso's Pizza for 50 teams. Yesterday I went out to Albion Hills with Chris Piller and our dog and picked up all the controls there. Today I am picking up most of the controls in Palgrave and Richard will do a few on his commute home, just for practice.